Maitland McDonagh

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Film Journal International, TV Guide Magazine
For 2,280 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 43% higher than the average critic
  • 4% same as the average critic
  • 53% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 10.7 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

Maitland McDonagh's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 55
Highest review score: 100 Devil in a Blue Dress
Lowest review score: 0 The Hottie & the Nottie
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 738 out of 2280
  2. Mixed: 1,265 out of 2280
  3. Negative: 277 out of 2280
2280 movie reviews
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per page
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Cold Mountain
    Allows the supporting cast to steal the movie.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Quills
    Censorship, madness, social rebellion and the power of art.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Joy Ride
    The sequel-ready twist at the end is a letdown, but until then this is a neatly constructed nail-biter.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    The Count of Monte Cristo
    This is solid entertainment, and the time Caviezel and Pearce spent training for their sword fights pays off handsomely.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Open Water
    The film's dispassionate examination of the shifts in Susan and Daniel's relationship as they drift from irritation to barely suppressed panic is at least as nerve wracking.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    The Royal Tenenbaums
    Precociously glib and never less than engaging.
    • 43 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Wonderland
    F. Scott Fitzgerald was wrong: there are second acts in American lives. But all too many of them are sad, sordid or both, as this fact-based story of sex, drugs and murder featuring adult-movie superstar John Holmes aptly demonstrates.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Burning Man: The Burning Sensation
    Cynics may scoff, but the spirit of Woodstock -- not the 1999 debacle, but the 1969 original -- lives.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Chain
    The melancholy joke - if you can call it that - is that the pall of global mediocrity has erased national differences and turned women like Tamiko and Amanda into ghosts drifting through their own lives.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    One Swallow Brought Spring
    Yes, the story is pure formula, though given less twinkle and lip gloss than Hollywood would have brought to bear on it; the film is so remake-friendly you can cast it in your head.
    • 47 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Anything But Love
    Sweet-natured charmer in its own right.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Town Bloody Hall
    D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus's record of the event is an invaluable document, its technical limitations notwithstanding.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Toy Story 2
    The story is simple enough for young children to follow, and the computer-animated images are both bright and surprisingly complex. Adults won't find the action heart-stopping.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Veer-Zaara
    Yash Chopra's thinly veiled plea for reconciliation between India and Pakistan is cloaked in a decades-spanning Romeo-and-Juliet romance.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    The Aviator
    Brisk, glossy and gloriously art-directed, Scorsese's lavish biopic is a pop trifle, engaging but not compelling.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Naqoyqatsi
    Dense collage of digitally altered images often looks shockingly like some super-hip media agency's show reel.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Wild Things
    A sleazy, seamy, flashy, steamy, vulgar exploitation thriller that revels in every minute of its own trashiness and delivers some pretty solid -- if prurient -- entertainment before strangling in a one-twist-too-many ending.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    How Stella Got Her Groove Back
    This lushly produced, lightweight romance embraces every cliche of the genre without so much as an ironic shrug.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill
    Though Bittner's slacker charm may not be to all tastes, the parrots are natural-born scene-stealers with more than enough charm to seduce the most dubious viewer.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Girl, Interrupted
    There's very little plot, and director Mangold's attempts to make a connection between the social confusion of the '60s and Susanna's inner turmoil don't really work.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    The Reception
    Their subtle, complex performances could put far more experienced and better-known actors to shame.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    The Ice Storm
    An honorable film, beautifully acted, refreshingly un-camp in its take on wide lapels and progressive rock and occasionally coolly moving. It's just that ultimately, there's less here than meets the eye.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Bukowski: Born into This
    By turns profane, vulgar, unpredictable, scabrous and perpetually somewhere between buzzed and three sheets to the wind, Bukowski opened a window onto a fringe world of blue-collar drudgery and alcoholic self-obliteration with his blistering, bleakly comic dispatches from the gutter.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    J.S.A.: Joint Security Area
    A blockbuster hit in Korea, Park's feature debut is a beguiling mix of the generic and the unfamiliar, and it ends on a shot that's nothing short of heartbreaking.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Such a Long Journey
    Director Sturla Gunnarsson crams each sequence with subtle, telling detail while avoiding "exotic India" clichés.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Tom Dowd & the Language of Music
    Mark Moormann's documentary tends to the worshipful, but Dowd, a charmer onscreen, was by all accounts just as appealing in real life.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Bounce
    Beneath the plot's romantic turns lies a surprisingly complex examination of the personal and professional price of honesty; falsehoods, half-truths, little white lies and self-delusion spur most of the key plot developments, and Roos never resorts to platitudes to account for their effects.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Lost in La Mancha
    The film should be required viewing for all aspiring filmmakers, but the story's road-accident appeal is universal.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Jackie Brown
    The giddy, "anything could happen" sense that made "Pulp Fiction" and "Reservoir Dogs" so viscerally exciting is missing here. But Tarantino's first picture in nearly three years is a faithful adaptation of Elmore Leonard's "Rum Punch," and its melancholy edge is a wistful delight.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Lost and Delirious
    Piper Perabo is a revelation -- and Barton is maturing into a sensitive, subtle performer with a marvelously expressive face.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    The Horse Whisperer
    Curl your cynical lip if you want, but there's a place for heartwarming, life-affirming, even weepy dramas, and Robert Redford brings the best-selling novel about a traumatized teen and her wounded horse to the screen with dignity and restraint.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Joe the King
    In the end, the film feels a little futile; its relentless, one-miserable-note tone is numbing.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Tony Takitani
    This minimalist meditation on loneliness and loss is so spare and drained of color that it seems always on the verge of fading into invisibility.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Aberdeen
    It's a raw, haunting experience.
    • 48 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Spriggan
    The film deploys its disparate elements smartly, and director Hirotsugu Kawasaki can stage an action sequence with the best of them.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Look at Me
    The multitalented Jaoui and Bacri excel on every level; her direction is efficient and unobtrusive, their script dissects the nuances of corruption by celebrity with a razor-sharp scalpel, and they deliver a pair of subtly unsparing performances.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Monster's Ball
    The film's elliptical character development sometimes renders the actors' work opaque; restraint is an underpracticed virtue, but even it can be taken to excess.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Lemora: A Child's Tale of the Supernatural (re-release)
    This underrrated shocker has developed a cult following since its scattershot 1973 release, but deserves a wider one.
    • 32 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Wrong Turn
    The result is sheer, unadulterated nastiness with no apologies.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Once Upon a Time in Mexico
    Banderas inhabits the role of the mariachi with a feral grace undimished by the seven-year gap between films.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Birthday Girl
    Kidman accomplishes a remarkable feat of transformation, adopting not only an accent, but a slightly seedy, faintly feral demeanor that almost makes you forget her icy good looks and fashion model's figure.
    • 46 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Clay Pigeons
    Nasty fun all around.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Laurel Canyon
    The story is less a sustained narrative than a series of scenes. But personal dynamics are the main event, and McDormand's powerhouse performance alone compensates for many minor deficiencies.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Arakimentari
    Viewers are left to draw their own conclusions, which inevitably will be colored by individual reactions to unabashed frontal nudity.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    A Matter of Taste
    This psychological thriller takes its time and never delivers the big shocks genre fans raised on its American cousins have come to expect. But it works up a chilly atmosphere of creeping dread, and the tension.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Reno: Rebel Without a Pause
    Director Nancy Savoca's no-frills record of a show forged in still-raw emotions captures the unsettled tenor of that post 9-11 period far better than a more measured or polished production ever could.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Sweet and Lowdown
    Affectionate, melancholy and anchored by a well thought-out performance from Sean Penn.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Phone Booth
    The payoff doesn't quite equal the intensity of the spectacularly squirm-inducing premise, but Farrell takes his showboating star turn and runs with it.
    • 48 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Babymother
    A fresh and spirited fairy tale.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Acts of Worship
    The story is predictable, but Reeder's performance is painfully convincing and the East Village locations so uniformly grimy that they all but weep despair.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Red Dragon
    Without the top-notch cast it would be indistinguishable from hundreds of pedestrian serial-killer pictures that clog video store shelves.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Broadway: The Golden Age, by the Legends Who Were There
    What could easily have been a sentimental, fannish exercise in musty nostalgia is in fact a lovely tribute to an era of feverish creativity that seemed as though it would never end yet now lives only in memory.
    • 48 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Beyond the Ocean
    Despite its floating narrative, this is a remarkably accessible and haunting film.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    AKA
    Subtle performances and the "you are there" immediacy conferred by digital video give Roy's film the feel of a series of stolen moments.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Love & Basketball
    The movie's performances, especially Lathan's, are strong enough to balance out the sometimes-clichéd script.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Secret Things
    It would be hard to mount a straight-faced defense of Brisseau's feverish moral tale, complete with a lurking angel of death, but the carnal machinations are hugely entertaining -- particularly if you like your skin with a bracing sermon chaser.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Private Parts
    Capably directed by Betty Thomas, this freewheeling pseudodocumentary tribute to Stern's juvenile antics paints the anarchic radio idol as Everyschmo made good.
    • 48 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Writer of O
    No voice is more vivid than that of the writer of O, who died in 2002.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Girl on the Bridge
    This rather obvious parable about soul mates benefits from luminous B&W cinematography, Paradis and Auteuil's luminous performances and the picturesque carny atmosphere.
    • 39 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Just a Kiss
    This small-scale film isn't for all tastes. But veterans of the dating wars will smirk uneasily at the film's nightmare versions of everyday sex-in-the-city misadventures.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    The Mothman Prophecies
    The creepy set pieces are repetitive and the payoff is rather unsatisfying, even though the prophecies do eventually pan out.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    The Dream Catcher
    Sad, leisurely road picture.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    What Alice Found
    Newcomer Grace seems born to the part of an unformed young woman whose character cries out to be shaped, but it's Ivey's unobtrusive skill that shapes their onscreen relationship into something thoroughly convincing.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Red Satin
    Vividly photographed in shimmering colors and driven by a propulsive score.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Mad Love
    Lavishly costumed and shot largely on location, the film benefits from a phenomenal central performance by Lopez de Ayala.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Winning Girls Through Psychic Mind Control
    Clever though the premise is, the film's real strength is the smooth banter between Sam and Devon; it's never less than smart, often startlingly perceptive and always thoroughly convincing.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Bend It Like Beckham
    Lightweight, thoroughly charming fluff.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Mojados: Through the Night
    Davis' tough, man-of-the-people narration is often annoying, but his words can't diminish the power of his story.
    • 42 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    High Tension
    The first two thirds of the screenplay by Aja and cowriter Gregory Levasseur is a relentless exercise in bare-bones nastiness.
    • 37 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Reindeer Games
    The plot's preposterous and Affleck is way too callow for a role that would have fit Robert Mitchum like a second-hand suit.
    • 36 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    This Thing of Ours
    Features generally crisp dialogue, solid performances by a mix of newcomers and familiar character actors, and Provenzano's direction is strikingly accomplished.
    • 43 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    American Wedding
    Is this sophisticated humor? No. But it is pretty entertaining.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    The Game
    It's a cut above the throng of mindless, purported thrillers in which explosions and gun battles replace even rudimentary story telling.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Cool and Crazy
    Berlevag's 1300 inhabitants are by nature hardy and uncomplaining, but Knut Erik Jensen's unhurried documentary reveals that there's more to them than mere stoicism.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    The Beat That My Heart Skipped
    It lacks "Fingers" searing, explosive vitality.
    • 44 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    The Operator
    Though clearly shot on a shoestring, it's handsome, tightly written and generally well acted.
    • 48 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Ju-on: The Grudge
    Shimizu generates a sense of palpable dread in each segment, expertly manipulating tried-and-true scare tactics supplemented by a truly inspired use of spooky sound effects.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    The 6th Day
    The movie isn't "Blade Runner," but it's got some provocative ideas about the implications of cloning in a market-driven, capitalist society.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Love and Death on Long Island
    The interactions between the raspy-voiced Hurt and various shallowly cheerful Americans are genuinely charming and dynamic.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    The Youth
    Ratnam, known for integrating controversial cultural and political themes into popular melodramas, bundles a multitude of coming-of-age traumas into the kind of juicy, overwrought narrative that was once a Hollywood staple.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    New Waterford Girl
    Balaban and Nairn are radiant, with none of the mannerisms that so often make Hollywood actresses look like Stepford teens.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    The Cloud of Unknowing
    A delicate watercolor dream of a ghost story, as insubstantial and tremulously haunting as an unquiet spirit.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Bubba Ho-tep
    Based on a short story by Joe R. Lansdale, this low-key oddity stresses character over broad laughs and shock effects, allowing Campbell and Davis to develop a quirky rapport that's a real pleasure to watch.
    • 41 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    History Lessons
    Neither a conventional documentary nor a work of complete fiction, Hammer's film constructs a secret history, part imagination and part reality that is both revealing and slyly entertaining.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    From Hell
    An astonishing act of synthesis, bringing together disparate Ripper theories and a fiercely idiosyncratic version of London's history, architecture, policing and social structure.
    • 43 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    The Mexican
    Apparently intended as a larky, character-driven adventure with dark underpinnings, this attenuated road movie was originally envisioned as a vehicle for relative unknowns, and might have worked better that way.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Halloween H20: 20 Years Later
    This efficient fright machine features a knowing cameo by Curtis's mom -- "Psycho's" Janet Leigh -- a couple of bloody good scares and a genuinely affecting performance from Curtis.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Holy Smoke
    Winslet and Keitel are perfectly matched, go-for-broke actors handed dramatic license to do a psychic striptease.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Captain Pantoja and the Special Services
    A military satire in the tradition of M*A*S*H and Catch-22, based on Peruvian novelist Mario Vargas Llosa's 1973 book.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    The Matrix Reloaded
    More comic book-like and less intriguing than the original, the film's punch-drunk cyber-mysticism still has a darkly seductive allure that sets it apart from juvenile, Star Wars-style space opera.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Invisible
    Bojanov's sad subjects could as easily be in Detroit or Glasgow or Marseilles. What keeps his film from being a relentless wallow in wasted lives is its surprising conclusion.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Bedazzled
    Quite enjoyable on its own terms.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    I'm the One That I Want
    On the downside, it's slackly edited -- comedy is, after all, all about timing and there are way too many lengthy shots of Cho waiting for her audience to respond.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Thirteen
    This quietly gripping film is both universal and particular.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Uprising
    Merits watching if only because it's a bracing corrective to the deeply entrenched image of Europe's Jews plodding, sheep-like, to their deaths in Nazi concentration camps.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Friday Night
    Dialogue is kept to a bare minimum, but the film's complex underlying sound mix -- a subtle symphony of faintly heard voices and the muted sounds of cars -- adds a haunting texture to what could have been the slightest of stories about a woman's ephemeral victory over emotional numbness.
    • 44 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Plunkett & Macleane
    It's vulgar, to be sure, but it's also brash and invigorating.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Benji: Off the Leash!
    It's sweet-natured, soothing and there's a behind-the-scenes/blooper reel at the end that will reassure anyone worried about the animals' treatment during filming.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    What's Cooking?
    That director and co-writer Gurinder Chadha transforms this sitcom material into a lively and charming film about the melting pot at full boil probably owes something to the fact that her own multicultural bona fides are firmly in order.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Infernal Affairs
    It should come as no surprise that there's an American remake in the works, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon and directed by Martin Scorsese.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Rounders
    Richly atmospheric but a little thin in the character department: It feels oddly truncated, despite nicely textured performances.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    The Hurricane
    The material is inherently compelling and anchored by Washington's performance.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Tokyo Eyes
    Resembles the giggly teen romances that saturate the Japanese market with a coolly alienated French twist.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Home Movie
    Slight and whimsical.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra
    A pitch-perfect parody of poverty row horror/sci-fi pictures of the 1950s, Larry Blamire's meticulous takeoff could easily be taken for the real thing, which is both its genius and its Achilles heel.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Paid in Full
    A vivid telling of a familiar story -- the rise and fall of a street criminal -- bolstered by exceptional performances and a clear-eyed take on the economics of dealing and the pathology of ghetto fabulousness.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Blue Gate Crossing
    Slight but affecting.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Heist
    Solidly entertaining and surprisingly free of the Mamet-isms that can suck the life right out of the most tightly crafted story.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    The Thomas Crown Affair
    It's enjoyable poppycock.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Confidence
    The cast — a felicitous blend of character actors and up-and-comers — work together like a street-smart machine, and Hoffman's scummy turn as porn-peddler and all-around creep King is a reminder of just how sleazily funny he can be.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Solomon & Gaenor
    The performances are uniformly excellent.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    U-571
    It's straightforwardly entertaining and a genuine nail-biter.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
    Picking up some 10 years after the previous film left off, this stripped-down, intelligently conceived follow-up is a respectable conclusion to the Terminator trilogy.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    The Friend
    If his ambitious first feature isn't entirely successful, it nevertheless poses genuinely provocative questions and opens a window into the way the 9/11 disaster looks from outside the U.S.
    • 41 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Yes Nurse! No Nurse!
    Be warned: the silly songs are damnably catchy, from Gerrit's ode to the seventeen pigeons he keeps on the roof, which he sings while sporting a very tight set of white undergarments, to the rousing "Ja Zuster, Nee Zuster."
    • 80 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    In the Company of Men
    This is a film worth seeing, and LaBute is a filmmaker well worth watching.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Strange Fruit
    Michael Meeropol provides a far more eloquent statement of the song's enduring impact: "Until the last racist is dead, 'Strange Fruit' is relevant."
    • 41 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    The Hebrew Hammer
    You don't have to be Jewish to love Jonathan Kesselman's uneven, profane and occasionally flat-out hilarious parody of vintage blaxploitation pictures, but it helps.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Metropolis
    The look is utterly faithful to Tezuka's aesthetic -- he loved classic Disney animation, especially "Bambi" (1942) -- but it's hard to empathize with the angst of a character who looks like a Super Mario Brother.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    The Clearing
    This anti-thriller radiates dread rather than suspense; it delivers creeping apprehension rather than adrenaline-pumping kicks, and the uniformly strong and finely calibrated performances more than compensate for the absence of technical razzle-dazzle.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Ayurveda: Art of Being
    Writer-director Pan Nalin's film is at its best when he focuses on the meticulous, hands-on preparation of herb- and mineral-based drugs; it's also genuinely provocative to hear Ayurvedists argue that healing should be a vocation rather than a career.
    • 40 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Monkeybone
    A fairly serious psychodrama rendered in cartoon images.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    'R Xmas
    Cinematographer Ken Kelsch, Ferrara's frequent collaborator, picks up the theme of overlapping lives by layering images within scenes -- the ongoing interplay of reflections and shadows is breathtaking -- and through slow, shimmering dissolves.
    • 36 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Poolhall Junkies
    Brassy and energetic, first-time director Mars Callahan's vividly photographed ode to the seductive allure of professional sharking succeeds in making the game seem genuinely kinetic and thrilling.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    The Baxter
    This wry, low-key comedy, crafted by members of the sketch-comedy group The State, swims defiantly against the stream of contemporary comedy, eschewing bodily-function jokes and obvious gags in favor of laughs so sly and self-effacing you could almost overlook them.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Demonlover
    The harder you try to follow the narrative the more frustrating the film becomes, but its sleekly menacing images work their way into your brain like slivers of dry ice.
    • 43 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Suspended Animation
    An uneasy mix of B-movie scares.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Chronicles
    What distinguishes Cordero's film is his use of location.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    The Ballad of Bering Strait
    Though filmmaker Nina Gilden Seavy followed Bering Strait for the better part of two years, their story is in no way over at the film's conclusion.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Freak Weather
    McKenzie's mercurial performance is the centerpiece of this sad, surprisingly absorbing story.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Layer Cake
    The result is so intoxicating, it hardly matters that you've heard it all before.
    • 46 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Greenfingers
    It's hard not to be charmed by scenes like the one in which Briggs gives his posies a little pep talk, assuring them that just because they sprouted behind prison walls doesn't mean they can't compete with those hoity-toity flowers at Hampton Court.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Ocean's Eleven
    Sure, like cotton candy: It doesn't do a thing for you, but it's wickedly sweet as it melts on your tongue.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Mimic
    Creepy, beautifully designed horror yarn about mutant roaches that delivers both artfully eerie atmosphere and some boffo shocks.
    • 33 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    I Dreamed of Africa
    Though beautifully acted by Basinger (everyone else is relegated to a supporting role), there's a strange vagueness to much of this sumptuous, stunningly photographed melodrama.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Cirque du Soleil: Journey of Man
    A hokey, more-than-a-little-annoying mystical journey of self-discovery.
    • 48 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Sugar & Spice
    Goofy and inconsequential, but pretty damned cute.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Heights
    Terrio keeps the multiple stories flowing smoothly, and the setting goes a long way to justify the web of fortuitous interconnections -- New York is the ultimate two-degrees-of-separation town.
    • 33 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Very Bad Things
    In a world filled with crude movie sitcoms, Berg's bitter, worst-possible-case scenario really does stand alone.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Way Past Cool
    Davidson's young cast is remarkable, engaging and guilelessly funny without being so cute that their calculated actions ring false.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Seabiscuit
    The movie's secret weapons are its stellar cast, whose performances go a long way to ameliorating Ross's ham-fisted use of foreshadowing and symbols, and its brilliantly shot racing sequences -- they're heart-stoppingly suspenseful even when the outcome is a matter of record.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Pop & Me
    A funny, perceptive and seductively engaging movie.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Can't Hardly Wait
    It's all cutely derivative, occasionally charming and very occasionally clever...but the movie's vague aspirations to being something more than disposable fluff never amount to anything.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Overnight
    The thin line between self-esteem and hubris is explored in this cautionary tale.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Sky Blue
    The animation is truly breathtaking, the action sequences are spectacular (and sometimes very violent) and everything floats along on the strains of Il Won's spare, hypnotic score.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Les amants criminels
    Imagine "Hansel and Gretel" by way of "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre."
    • 51 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace
    It's a kiddie movie rejiggered for childish grown-ups, of whom there are enough to make it a hit. How such childishness has become a virtual secular religion is hard to imagine.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Monster
    Ricci's less flashy characterization of the immature Selby is equally skilled and meshes seamlessly with Theron's uncompromising performance.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Proof of Life
    His (Crowe) emotionally charged performance stands in contrast to Ryan's annoying, movie-star turn.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    The Green Mile
    Modest, on-the-money performances, which look effortless because they're so meticulously thought out, make the hours fly by.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    I Capture the Castle
    Smith's beautifully observed story of two young women learning how cruel and calculating the world -- and they -- can be is beautifully realized, and Garai stands out among a fine ensemble cast.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Fever Pitch
    If you're rooting for Barrymore and Fallon, then why not their team? In the movies, there are enough happy endings for everyone.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Edge Codes.com: The Art of Motion Picture Editing
    Alex Shuper's solid, if hyperactive, documentary uses every trick in the film editor's book to celebrate this too-often underappreciated aspect of moviemaking.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Collateral
    It's essentially an urban variation on "The Hitcher" (1986) with nothing much going on underneath.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    The Green Butchers
    The result isn't exactly funny, just profoundly peculiar and even occasionally, unexpectedly poignant.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Fallen
    For all its classy cast and glum polish, this metaphysical horror picture with big things on its mind lacks the malevolent buzz that vitalized SEVEN and THE HIDDEN, two of the more obvious sources from which it draws considerable inspiration.
    • 46 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Lolita
    Lyne's direction is sometimes overblown -- debauched playwright Clare Quilty's (Frank Langella) appearance amid the pale fire of exploding bug-zappers really is a bit much -- and the unfortunate fact is that the novel is one long tease, an intricate, seductive game in which words are as important as deeds.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Afterglow
    Julie Christie is glorious, and that's most of what you need to know about this slight, loosely structured and self-consciously ironic soap opera in which two couples -- one young and troubled, the other older but hardly wiser -- get themselves into a series of fine messes.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Bugs!
    This otherwise sober film's high ick factor is clearly designed to convince restless students that entomology is extremely cool.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Tuvalu
    The film's tone is a matter of taste -- the more you enjoy the melancholy silent comedies of Keaton, Charlie Chaplin and Harold Lloyd, the more likely you are to embrace its sensibility -- but it's undeniably the product of a singular and beautifully realized vision.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Angela's Ashes
    Parker's adaptation is meticulous, unsentimental, beautifully acted-- but nearly two and a half hours worth of dying babies, rain-spattered streets, ragged children and filthy, bug-infested rooms is a bit oppressive.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Center Stage
    The story is shallow stuff, but pretty entertaining until it becomes utterly preposterous.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Water Drops on Burning Rocks
    The whole thing has the air of a parlor trick, but it's a good trick, beautifully acted.
    • 47 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Brother
    Delivers some powerful emotional wallops alongside the chopsticks-up-the-nose violence, and manages the remarkable feat of making venerable American genre conventions seem eerily alien.
    • 26 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Shadow Hours
    Very entertaining, if thoroughly silly.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Die, Mommie, Die!
    But fabulous though the allusions, sets and costumes are, Busch's performance is the movie's heart, and like the screen idols whose every gesture he's lovingly absorbed, Busch can pack a world of meaning into an arched eyebrow and a slight crack of the voice.
    • 40 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    2009: Lost Memories
    Though it ultimately devolves into megabudget Hollywood action-movie cliches by way of John Woo, Lee's handsome blockbuster is an entertaining variation on the American formulas that have colonized world cinema.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    The Bourne Supremacy
    A refreshing alternative to the hypertrophied spy thrillers in which exaggerated action sequences, over-the-top super-villainy and high-tech gadgetry trump character and plot.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Mail Order Wife
    The result, a dissection of the complicated dynamics of sexual and economic exploitation, is pitiless and occasionally inspired.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Shadow Boxers
    By trying to be both a portrait of Rijker and an introduction to women's boxing, it shortchanges both subjects.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Panic Room
    A well-crafted exercise in urban paranoia that's so controlled it never achieves the reckless, visceral immediacy its subject matter demands.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    The Tracker
    The film's bleakly inevitable ending packs a wallop and its hauntingly desolate images linger long after the story is told.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Volcano
    The fun is in the mayhem, and there's plenty of it.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    6ixtynin9
    Much of the film's appeal rests with Thai soap-opera actress Panyopas, whose bittersweet charm smoothes over the uglier aspects of Tum's spiral into crime.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Me and You and Everyone We Know
    The result is discomfiting, funny and oddly touching.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Double Dare
    Less a history of a specialty that scarcely existed before the '70s -- men habitually donned wigs and dresses to double for women -- than a portrait of two women, one beginning her career and the other in the twilight of hers.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Batman Begins
    The result is handsome and logical, but missing the spark that would make it thrilling.
    • 34 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Wake
    Writer-director Henry LeRoy Finch's ripely overwrought exercise in Southern Gothic psychodrama, which happens to unfold in a picturesquely decaying house in Maine.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Assault on Precinct 13
    A slicked up, perfectly watchable update of a movie that was just about perfect on its own bleakly seedy terms.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Funny Ha Ha
    The look is rough, but Bujalski's talent is evident.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Bright Young Things
    Lacks the novel's drier-than-dry bite, but compensates with a strong ensemble cast and a series of glamorous party sequences in which the decor has at least as much depth as the guests.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Ivansxtc
    Its high-definition video images -- are coated with a convincing sheen of disgust, and Huston's performance is riveting.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Claire Dolan
    Shattering in its own quiet way.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Won't Anybody Listen
    Beautifully edited and, appropriately, the sound is unusually well recorded and produced.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Bamboozled
    This is less a movie than a lecture. Perhaps Lee simply should have made a documentary.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Sheriff
    There's no downside to a reminder that not every beefy, God-talking sheriff is a bigoted cracker, and Kraus' short, no-frills documentary is a model of fly-on-the-wall filmmaking.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Trekkies
    Most of the extreme Trek fans it features are obsessed in a big way, and if they were your children you'd probably be thinking therapy.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    The Experiment
    First-time feature filmmaker Oliver Hirschbiegel maintains a riveting sense of simmering brutality.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    The Machinist
    Anderson is a master of detail, from the film's ubiquitous fish motif to the elaborate carnival set piece that unfolds inside the claustrophobic confines of a spook-house ride called "Route 666."
    • 52 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Bomb the System
    In the end it's all seductive surface and no substance, but Lough has a bold eye and a vivid sense of uniquely urban beauty.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Charlie: The Life and Art of Charles Chaplin
    Comprehensive and reverential.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    The Rundown
    For a mountain of muscle [The Rock]'s a surprisingly charming screen presence. And his low-key appeal helps nudge Peter Berg's derivative but good-natured light action picture in the direction of breezy entertainment, rather than painfully noisy macho posturing.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Fahrenheit 9/11
    Moore's desperate need for attention is irritating, but it's also his strength as a gadfly; it drives him to needle sacred cows and received wisdom that would otherwise go unchallenged.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Leela
    Kapadia's intelligent, nuanced performance is the film's highlight, balanced by Khanna's portrayal of Nashaad, who could easily be a patronizing, chauvinist caricature.
    • 38 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    The Astronaut's Wife
    Chilly, muted and refreshingly free of cheap shocks, this stylish psychological horror tale is greatly enhanced by subtle (acting) performances.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Dirty Pretty Things
    Ejiofor's subtle, infinitely humane performance is the invisible glue that holds everything together and Chris Menges's darkly shimmering cinematography lends the story a gritty, coolly seductive glamour.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    S1m0ne
    The result is gorgeous, if ultimately shallow -- much like Simone herself.
    • 40 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    The Cell
    The costumes are phenomenal, the set design ravishing and the sadistic inventiveness extraordinary.
    • 37 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Confessions of a Burning Man
    Burnett and Lee's graceful, sympathetic documentary focuses on participants who embody Burning Man's ideals without being blind to the opportunists and party animals it inevitably attracts.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Steamboy
    The sci-fi wonders, including an army of shuddering robo-soldiers and one-man, steam-powered bombers with delicate wood-and-linen wings, are truly marvelous and go a long way toward making up for the film's erratic pacing.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Veronica Guerin
    Blanchett's insouciant but steely performance alone makes the film worth watching, but it's Brenda Fricker's quietly underplayed turn as Guerin's mother that makes your throat tighten.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    The Art of Amália
    If ever anyone earned the title "diva," it was the late singer Amalia Rodrigues.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Sia, the Dream of the Python
    Colorful and deceptively buoyant until it suddenly pulls the rug out from under you.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    LaLee's Kin: The Legacy of Cotton
    Froemke and Dickson's film opens a window onto rural poverty so dire it's almost inconceivable that it exists in 21st-century America.
    • 37 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Bad Company
    Hopkins and Rock are a surprisingly good mix; Hopkins actually underplays his role as a company man with a barely acknowledged conscience, while Rock's manic impulses aren't allowed to run riot.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Attitude
    It aspires to a documentary realism and keeps the focus on the characters at all times. Though the results can't really be called enjoyable, the intensity that bleeds off the screen is undeniably effective.
    • 44 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    The Code
    Boursinhac and Bibi Naceri throw all the usual elements into the pot: Economic inequality, ethnic tensions, feverish family ties and the titular criminal code, which everyone invokes and everyone agrees is a load of claptrap.
    • 46 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Solitude
    Orenna, Thornton and Belton deliver strong, surprisingly subtle performances that make the modest fireworks genuinely engaging.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Tortilla Soup
    While this cheerful film has nothing particularly new to say about the ties that hold family members together even when they're driving each other crazy, it's a pleasure to watch such a talented ensemble at work.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Mein liebster Feind - Klaus Kinski
    Hugely entertaining.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    The Crimson Rivers
    For most of its running time, this lunatic euro-thriller is creepy, stylish and occasionally suspenseful.
    • 41 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Luminarias
    Breezy and eminently watchable.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    The Taste of Others
    A huge hit in France, this ensemble drama revolves around two very different social groups whose encounters with each other change several lives in surprising ways.
    • 91 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    L.A. Confidential
    Director Curtis Hanson keeps the hugely complicated story zooming along the boulevard of broken dreams without losing sight of the details that make the trip worthwhile.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    E-Dreams
    The film delivers what it promises: A look at the "wild ride" that ensues when brash young men set out to conquer the online world with laptops, cell phones and sketchy business plans.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Affliction
    Caustic and despairing, Shrader's film lacks the delicate beauty of Atom Agoyan's "Sweet Hereafter," but has just as much bitter power.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Guerrilla: The Taking of Patty Hearst
    Though Hearst is the hook, Stone's unwavering focus is on the heady mix of social and personal dynamics that spawned the SLA.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    The Heart of Me
    Their dilemmas are the stuff of dozens of Masterpiece Theater productions, but they're brought to life with a vividness that defies changing mores and cuts to the heart of the ways people justify hurting each other in the name of love.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    The Nomi Song
    And if you never learn much about the man behind the mask, well, that's as Nomi would have wanted it.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Junebug
    Morrison brings an amazingly sure hand to MacLachlan's prickly screenplay.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Chuck & Buck
    Arteta wrings some laughs from their bizarre (and more than a little frightening situation), but they're uncomfortable laughs, emotional protection from the freak show.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Casa de los babys
    Though ultimately something less than the sum of its parts, the film's performances are reason enough to see it.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Fat Girl
    A laser-sharp evocation of the tortured ties that bind sisters, who can love and loathe each other simultaneously and inflict lifelong wounds with chilling expertise.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Woman Thou Art Loosed
    You may not care for the message, but there's nothing insidious about it.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Tosca
    The performance sequences are in color, while the recording sequences are in B&W. Jacquot's strategy allows his cast the benefit of being able to give full performances (Raimondi is a particularly good film actor) while demonstrating vividly that the beauty and power of the opera reside primarily in the music itself.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
    Cuaron lets his enthusiasms show.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Slums of Beverly Hills
    The film flawlessly captures the directionless alienation of youngsters whose families are in no shape to guide them through the turbulence of their teenage years.
    • 48 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    The Banger Sisters
    Watching Sarandon and Hawn sashay through their paces is its own reward.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Amandla! A Revolution in Four Part Harmony
    Though overlong and repetitive, Hirsch's film is vitalized by the same music that helped keep the revolutionary spirit alive.
    • 47 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    WXIII: Patlabor the Movie 3
    The backgrounds are handsome and moody, and the character animation is less distractingly cartoonish than that of films like the otherwise breathtaking Metropolis (2001).
    • 64 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    8 Women
    Imagine the John Waters remake of an Agatha Christie mystery directed by Douglas Sirk, and you'll get some idea of the tone of this retro musical melodrama, which features a cast whose combined wattage could eclipse a small solar system.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Mission: Impossible II
    It's actually sharper, less reverential and generally better than "Misson: Impossible."
    • 49 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    The Mummy
    Noisy, spectacular and disposable.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Chopper
    Bana's performance is nothing short of electrifying.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Criminal
    The remake is infinitely more entertaining if you haven't seen "Nine Queens" -- the details are different, but the surprises are the same and something of the first film's underlying darkness has been lost in translation.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Tell Them Who You Are
    The last word on Haskell Wexler's career hasn't been spoken, but it's hard to imagine there's much more to say about him as a bad dad.
    • 41 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Dust
    The chaotic, brutal iconography of Italian Westerns is put to novel use in this time-traveling, self-referential, hugely ambitious story of American brothers.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Festival Express
    The result is a vivid record of live acts whose rough-edged immediacy is an integral part of their appeal.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Rick
    A deliciously bitter tale of lust and betrayal.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Meet the Parents
    The gross-out factor is surprisingly low, and the combination of Stiller and De Niro is inspired.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Ladies in Lavender.
    Its appeal lies in the powerhouse performances delivered by Dench and Smith.
    • 19 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    The Hillside Strangler
    Character actress Lin Shaye, usually relegated to grotesque supporting roles in mainstream comedies, is a revelation as Buono's embittered, cancer-ridden mother.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    March of the Penguins
    The penguins' matter-of-fact victory over some of the Earth's most punishing conditions is astonishing enough without the epic airs.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    All the Pretty Horses
    The movie's greatest liability is the familiarity of the material, much parodied since the glory days of John Ford. Unfortunately, Thornton's love for its iconography doesn't quite bring it to life.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Gangster No. 1
    The movie's captivating details are all in the performances, from Foreman's barking-mad Taylor to Thewlis's smoothly sinister Freddie and Bettany/McDowell's hard-eyed gangster, an amoral bottom-feeder with an expedient streak of sadism.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Brassed Off
    If you're in a triumph of the human spirit frame of mind, this is your cup of dark, sweet tea.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Guinevere
    Deftly mixes rueful sentimentality and trenchant observations about the constantly shifting balance of power that drives relationships.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    The Animation Show 2005
    Given the dearth of outlets for short, noncommercial animation, fans of the form shouldn't miss this collection.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    The Kid Stays in the Picture
    The result is a snazzy kick -- it's never less than hugely entertaining -- that should in no way be mistaken for an unbiased account. But then, Evans is the quintessential Hollywood character.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    The Reckoning
    An intriguing mix of the familiar and the alien. DaFoe's distinctly American speech patterns are a little jarring amid a tangle of British inflections (French actor Cassel's accent is justified within the story), but it doesn't spoil the film's overall effect.
    • 36 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Big Fat Liar
    Fresh-faced leads Muniz and Bynes are charmers, Giamatti makes Wolf into a splendidly loathsome adversary, and the film is refreshingly free of bodily function jokes.
    • 46 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Picture Perfect
    An amiable romantic comedy.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    The Wedding Singer
    Yes, it's sappy. It's also silly, utterly unironic, a sketch stretched out to feature length, and, if you're in the right mood, pretty darned cute.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Antz
    Adults also are more likely than kids to snicker at jokes.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    The Opportunists
    The plot isn't what makes this movie worth watching anyway -- it's the performances and the ambiance.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Concert for George
    Anyone who remembers Harrison fondly will enjoy this musical tribute, though it assumes a level of familiarity with Harrison's associates that not all viewers will have.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Cowboy Bebop the Movie: Knockin' on Heaven's Door
    Brisk, engaging story.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Risk/Reward
    In the end, you're left to pick your moral: Money changes everything or money isn't everything or both.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    The Devil's Rejects
    Rob Zombie's pitch-perfect evocation of '70s horror films about monstrous families and the unfortunates who cross their path is one of a handful of sequels that both improve on their sources and play perfectly as stand-alones.
    • 33 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    7 Year Zig Zag
    The sheer force of imagination that produced the film's unique mix of different styles, musical numbers and hipster doggerel is extraordinary.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    Deep Blue
    This stunningly photographed documentary captures extraordinary images of ocean-based life.
    • 47 Metascore
    • 60 Maitland McDonagh
    The Matrix Revolutions
    It neither works as a stand-alone film nor captures the thrilling sense of somber, pulpy mystery that made "The Matrix" so compelling. Nevertheless, It brings the saga to a satisfying close, and relies less on the clumps of pop-mystical cyber gobbledy-gook that gummed up the gears of "Reloaded" and more on the powerful emotional bonds that bind Neo, Trinity, Morpheus, Niobe, Link and Zee.
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